John D. Carmack Quotes

• The Xbox 360 is the first console that I’ve ever worked with that actually has development tools that are better for games than what we’ve had on PC.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Console

• The speed of light sucks.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Sucks

• The cost of adding a feature isn’t just the time it takes to code it. The cost also includes the addition of an obstacle to future expansion. The trick is to pick the features that don’t fight each other.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Trick, Expansion, Programming, Addition

• Rocket science has been mythologized all out of proportion to its true difficulty.

  John D. Carmack

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Difficulty, Proportion, Skyrocketing, School, True

• Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn’t take it away from you. I’m happy to share what I can, because I’m in it for the love of programming.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Programmer

• Low-level programming is good for the programmer’s soul.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Programming, Programmer

• It’s nice to have a game that sells a million copies.

  John D. Carmack

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Copies, Games

• I’d rather have a search engine or a compiler on a deserted island than a game.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Deserted, Search Engine

• Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren’t sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

  John D. Carmack

  Topics in Success

• Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Deciding

• Everybody’s saturated with the marketing hype of next-generation consoles. They are wonderful, but the truth is that they are as powerful as a high end PC is right now.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Hype

• Because of the nature of Moore’s law, anything that an extremely clever graphics programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Competent, Replicate, Programmer

• At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can’t win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.

  John D. Carmack

  Tags in Petty, Subjectively

John D. Carmack (13)

Birth:	20th August, 1970
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Aerospace Engineer, Programmer

About

John D. Carmack was born in Kansas, USA. He is an American aerospace engineer and video game programmer. He studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He co-founded id Software. He was the lead programmer of the id video games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage and their sequels. He is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, such as his Carmack's Reverse algorithm for shadow volumes. He received many awards, including Technology & Engineering Emmy Award and BAFTA Fellowship. He married Katherine Anna Kang in 2000.

Related Authors

• Roger B. Chaffee
• Frank Whittle
• Burt Rutan
• James S. McDonnell
• Wernher von Braun
• John D. Carmack
• Charles Lee Lesher
• Eric Anderson

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 21st January

Births

• 1938 - Wolfman Jack
• 1884 - Roger Nash Baldwin
• 1824 - Stonewall Jackson
• 1884 - Texas Guinan
• 1976 - Kirsty Gallacher

Deaths

• 1932 - Lytton Strachey
• 2008 - Evan G. Galbraith
• 1924 - Vladimir Lenin
• 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker
• 1870 - Alexander Herzen